Guadalcanal 72 Years On

[kham]

Another pow says there are a lot of starving J. in the area who would be willing to give up.


The resistance from Matanikau yesterday alarms the marines. They don't know how many Japanese are there and they suspect a sizable SNLF presence. Marine intel section decides a recon is needed. A *heavily armed* patrol of 30-40 will take a boat at 6AM and land around Pt. Cruz. Then they'll march to the Matanikau, and march as far inland as they can before nightfall. Camp overnight, then march back to Lunga pt. After that 'reconnaissance in force' the Marines should have a pretty good idea of the strength of the J. in that area.

Before the patrol sets out, Lt. Col Goettge (Div. Intel officer) hears the reports about the POWs and the white flag. He thinks he can arrange for a big surrender. He takes over the patrol and reconstitutes it. Removes riflemen, adds intelligence clerks and translator Lt. Ralph Cory. It is incredible that Cory is even in the Marines, much less on the front lines. In 1941, as a civilian, he was translating messages cracked from Japanese diplomatic cipher. He Knows Too Much! Dr. Pratt, regimental surgeon volunteers to go along. Another rifleman replaced. By the time the patrol leaves (12 hours late - 6PM!) it is 25 *lightly* armed marines plus one of the J. POWs. (**any of you Mk1 Mod0 knuckle draggers like me thinking this has got disaster stamped on it??)

Ghormley tells McCain to use all available APDs to bring AvGas and other airfield supplies to Henderson (yes, he's Sen McCain's dad).

sometime on 11 Aug 2 Enterprise SBDs on anti-sub patrol find a sub 20 miles ahead of Ent. They near-miss it with 2 500 pound bombs. The sub is damaged - stays on the surface for 5-6 minutes while the SBDs strafe it. Fate of sub unknown.
It doesn't take the IJN subs long to figure out the general area the USN CVs are patrolling. USN will call it "Torpedo Alley''

[kham]

War correspondent Tregaskis joins a convoy of 3 small boats carrying supplies to Tulagi
When they're 5 miles from Tulagi, they notice a IJN sub chasing them 1 mile behind!
After a tense artillery duel between the sub and Marine shore batteries, the sub departs.

[kham]

~ 0900 12 Aug 3 Bettys fly recon over Henderson Field

~ 1000 12 Aug Adm. McCain's PBY lands at Henderson. McCain's aide (on plane) says the field is suitable for fighter operations. Ghormley finds out many of the pilots en route to Henderson are green. McCain fixes that. Takes 12 least experienced - swaps with 12 veteran pilots from Efate. The 12 greenies will now train at Efate.

[kham]

Tregaskis interviews Lt. Col. Edson about the fighting on Tulagi. Edson says the Japanese had good defensive positions but quickly ran out of supplies since the attack was a complete surprise. No Japanese surrendered, the only prisoner was captured after a mortar dazed him.

Lt. Col Whaling briefs Goettge. Warns that J. between Matanikau and Pt. Cruz are frisky and, on no condition, should they land there. Goettge patrol departs Kukum on boat, is confused by signal flare, returns.
~1900 Goettge patrol departs Kukum on boat.
~2100 Goettge's boat lands, slowly and noisily - just W. of Matanikau river. *Exactly* where Whaling told them not to go.

It's 10pm local time. After marines disembark, boat returns to Kukum.
Hearing the commotion, the local Japanese set up a MG 200 yards away and bring up riflemen.
Goettge reconnoiters inland - gets killed by a shot to his head. Marine guarding POW executes him.
Marines are trapped on the beach with no cover - all they can do is dig in the sand to avoid MG fire.
Bill Bainbridge sent back to get help. He takes off down the beach. His body is found along the beach a week later. Japanese send up flares to illuminate marines for their shooters. Marines keep getting shot and can't see any muzzle flashes to shoot back.
Sgt. Arndt sent to swim back to Kukum. Rest of patrol still pinned down on beach by a MG. (11:15 pm local time). Joe Spaulding sent back for help - same route as Arndt. Arndt can't swim far as his boots are stuck on his feet. He alternates between swimming and walking on beach. Arndt meets a Japanese, shoots him. Finds a dugout canoe, starts paddling (with his hands) towards Kukum.
During the night, marines on the beach keep getting picked off one by one.

[kham]

Arndt makes it to Kukum. it's still dark - no one knows where Goettge is. rescue mission delayed until dawn.

~0300 13 Aug Rescue mission departs Kukum
Dawn: only 4 marines alive. They make a break for the jungle. 3 of them are shot.
Sgt. Few makes it to the trees - looks back and see J. hacking at bodies on beach (living and dead) with swords.
Few soon has to fight a Japanese Sgt. Few's miserable Riesing sub machine gun keeps jamming. He has to take a bayonet away from the enemy and kill him with it to escape.
Rescue mission finds Spaulding on the beach headed for Kukum. they pick him up.
They quickly find Sgt. Few. He says there's no way anybody else survived.
The legend has it the Jap prisoner lured the marines into ambush; thats not *quite what happened but...

~1800 Imperial GHQ (Tojo) orders 17th army to recapture 'canal/Tulagi while continuing its attack on Port Moresby. Moresby is top priority. Unlike Tokyo and IJN, Gen. Kawaguchi thinks this will be a tough job.
Gen Hyakutake (17th Army) in Rabaul may use 6,000 men to retake 'canal.
He'll have 500 man SNLF 3,500 man Kawaguchi Butai 2,000 man Ichiki* Butai *Col. Ichiki is IJA's top tactical genius (butai - unit)

McCain sends 2 APDs loaded with airfield supplies from Espiritu Santo to 'canal. Tells Vandegrift his planes will arrive Aug 18-19.
Lou Diamond (age 52), the ultimate Old Breed Marine, tries to sink a sub with his 81mm mortar.His 2nd shot is DEAD ON but the sub had already dived and was 20 feet underwater. (off Tulagi)
The old breed marines had a hard time dealing with SWPac jungle conditions. Most of them were medically evacuated in two months or so but they passed on a lot of tricks of the trade in that time.
Old Breed means those Marines who fought in WW1 and stayed in 1st Mar Div through the '20s and '30s into WW2.

[kham]

~ 13 Aug IJN code change. JN25c out, JN25d in. HYPO back to square one again.

Station HYPO in Pearl Harbor is convinced this quick change is because of the Tribune story about Midway on Aug 8. Truth = murky

"The whole Guadalcanal campaign was to be bedeviled by our failure to get up-to-date radio intelligence." - Adm. Layton, 'And I was There'
3 Bettys fly recon over H. 90mm AA can't reach them. They can fly high since they're not weighed down by bombs. There might have been a fizzled air raid with 18 bombers. (Books contradict each other) If there was a raid, the bombs fell in the ocean.
Marines catch a break in 3 ways. 1. In the period before the 1st attack on the perimeter, Marines had time to learn the terrain and dig in. "If you dig in, it's hard to dig out." 2.Marines had been shelled, bombed and fought small unit actions against small J. units while on patrol. It helps if, while fighting off an intense assault, it's not the first time you've been shot at. The IJA excels at "shock tactics". If the defender isn't shocked...
3. The rapid withdrawal of the transports led the J. to believe that not many men had been landed.

est 0100 14 Aug Half of the Ichiki Butai (about 900) board 6 Destroyers at Rabaul and head for 'canal. This is an *elite* unit - it was scheduled to hit the beaches of Midway. There is no better tactical commander in the IJA than Col. Ichiki. There is no better fighting unit that his Butai. Kawaguchi demands IJN take ALL of his brigade's equip and supplies. A big commitment for the IJN!

[kham]

est 0600 14 Aug On Palau (middle of nowhere - N. of New Guinea, E of the Philippines) Kawaguchi orders 3 months advance pay given to his men. Tells them to have a BIG PARTY tonight before they get on the transports tomorrow for Rabaul.

~ 0700 Chief Coastwatcher on 'canal Clemens approaches Marine lines. He has no password - to make sure they don't shoot him he puts on a show. Scouts and bearers march in a double column parade - he's wearing his best clothes. it works. When Clemens meets V. he offers his *60* native scouts. Vandegrift assigns him to staff intelligence. Accepts his scouts too!

~0800 Snowy Rhoades finds pilot William Warden from Enterprise who was shot down Aug 7. They're at Tiaro bay ('canal's W. coast) Warden is injured. Rhoades sends a message to missionary Emery de Klerk, 10 miles away at Tangarare, asking for medical help.

Besides today's recon by Bettys, they also air drop supplies for the J. in the jungle via parachute. Marines recover most of these. Drop includes map of Marine positions and word that a SNLF brigade is on the way.
Captured message: The enemy before your eyes are collapsing... relief is near.
Parcels also include J. newspapers with news about the Battle of Savo Island. Those report the IJN sinking a BB, CAx2, CLx3, DDx3, TRx10 plus damaging CAx2, DDx2 and a TR. The marines know this is nonsense but this is the only news the J. on 'canal receive.

~ 0900 15 Aug USN APDs deliver airfield supplies (AvGas, bombs, spare parts) and 120 ground crew.
Also delivered: a coastwatcher radio station and Hugh Mackenzie - coastwatcher boss for the Solomons.

[kham]

~ 0300 15 Aug 6 Destroyers depart Truk with Col. Ichiki and 917 men of his unit headed for 'canal.

[kham]

~ 0400 16 Aug 2 TRs take depart Palau for Rabaul carrying the Kawaguchi Butai As the ships leave a big black dog jumps from the dock into the ocean. It paddles to one of the ships and clambers onto a loading platform. It finds Lt. Ueno who apologizes to the dog for leaving it behind. As the TRs sail to Rabaul the soldiers boast about having no fear of the Americans. "All we have to do is attack them at night!".

Marines still on short rations but at least they can gloat. "It is indeed glorious to eat the enemy’s rations of tinned crab and other of his food delicacies, while drinking his beer and wine."

USN isn't reading JN25 very well but they have enough to know 3 IJN CVs are at sea headed for SWPac and are going to do something related to 'canal around Aug 23-25

~0800 Amateur coastwatcher Geoffrey Kuper, Santa Isabel, delivers Lt. Firebaugh (pilot shot down Aug 7) to Tulagi. Kuper is inducted into the official ranks of the coastwatchers with the fancy radio and everything.

~0900 More Bettys fly recon missions over Henderson Field

[kham]

~1200 16 Aug Jacob Vouza, 'canals chief constable and Clemens' number one scout, hits it off with the Marines. He loves them, they love him. They give him a pocket sized US flag to use as a passport for Marine lines. (ominous music) **picture is after Aug 16